


Inevitable

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canon friendly, Coulson is in love with Skye, Coulson's office in new SHIELD is depressing, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Skye adores Coulson, kiss, skoulsonfest2k14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 04:39:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2216157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>August 30th - Skoulsonfest: Inevitable</p><p>Ficlet. Skye finds Coulson struggling under the weight of new SHIELD and decides to cheer him up with some encouraging words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inevitable

“ _Intense_.”

He breathed out a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumped forward in the high backed leather chair, looked up at her.

“You caught me in a moment.”

“Guess so,” she replied.

Her eyes were giving away all her concern.

Skye had seen that face before, when he was making a consideration.  Either something painful that must be done, or something painful that was already done.

She couldn’t help wanting to know which.

“Your office looks like a basement,” she said twisting around to look at the clutter of collectibles and brass lamps and dirty-paned windows.

“Bunker, technically.”

“Yeah, _I know_ ,” she said, muttering after, “That was supposed to be funny.”

Although he wasn’t in the mood to smile, he felt the corner of his mouth pull up.

“So, observation,” she started, sitting on the edge of his desk and picking up the hourglass there, began turning it in her hand.  “That face you were wearing, when I walked in, your ‘inevitable’ face.”

He tilted his head at her, considering.

“The first time I saw you make it, was when you decided about Dr. Hall,” she said.

Coulson’s brows drew together.

“Like it was a choice that you never wanted to make, but…”

“Inevitable,” he said, breathing audibly.

She put the hourglass back on the desk, watched the sand begin to pile into the bottom in a steady stream.

When she looked up his eyes were on it, focused, intense.

“Don Quixote.”

“Our enemies are real, Coulson” she said.  “Not imagined.”

“Building SHIELD isn’t just about getting HYDRA.  We lack resources, manpower.  What do they lack?”

“ _Conviction_ ,” she said.

His eyes got wide for a moment as he stared up at her.

“They’re just doing it for themselves.  And it’s made them into monsters.”

She picked up the hourglass before it ran out and turned it over again, shaking him out of his thoughts.

“Don’t you want the Mike Petersens of the world to be able to hold their heads up high?”

“Mike Petersen might not see his son for a long time.”

“Mike was a good man that made a really bad choice, and you gave him a second chance.  You gave him the possibility of his son, alive, and back in his arms. I’ll never forget when I saw you on that bridge, and Mike was coming back, and you weren’t.”

She stood up off his desk, fidgeting with her ring.

“I knew something...bad...had happened.  That something was wrong.  But, I never doubted why you were over there and Ace was with us.”

He sat back in his chair, tipped his head against his hand.

“Just like when you stayed in that room with Mr. Diaz.  You say that _I_ see the world differently, but I’ve never met anyone like you.  Someone that would go that far for a person they barely even know.”

 _“I have_ ,” he said, smiling.

“And I happen to believe you’re an excellent judge of character. _Still..._   Even though, you’re a lot crankier these days.”

She tipped herself forward a little and looked down into his coffee mug.

“A refill might help.”

He stood and hooked the handle of the mug in his finger, walking around the long wooden desk.

“You don’t believe in the inevitable, then,” he asked, stopping in front of her.

“Not really,” she said, smiling at the way she could see the creases forming around the corner of his eyes, even though he wasn’t, technically, smiling.

“Then what?” he asked playfully, waiting for her to start walking in front of him.

“Choices.  What we _choose_ to fight for.  What we _choose_ to want.  For ourselves, for others.”

They walked comfortably shoulder to shoulder as they reached the door and he made space for her again, like he always did.

“And did you?” he asked, as she reached the narrow door frame.

" _Choose?_ "

She turned and filled it, looking back at him with an eyebrow raised.

“I guess being left to my own devices, to steal and crash an SUV while scamming a dirty businessman into looking up HYDRA’s money trail, and then stealing a sportscar to drive all afternoon to find you, in an abandoned test site, in the middle of the desert...didn’t settle all that?”

Coulson listed slightly and tapped the cup against his leg as she slow-blinked at him.

He shifted his weight, and leaned his head, bringing a hand up to stroke her cheek as he kissed her softly.

“What was that for?” she asked, flustered, as he pulled back.

“Just something…I’ve been wondering,” he said.

The realization hit her when she’d walked in his office, she assumed he’d been thinking about SHIELD, talking about SHIELD this whole time, but…

“And, are you still…wondering?”

“It might be… _inevitable_.”

He leaned in to kiss her again.

 

 


End file.
